


Time is like a river (and I am set on drinking it whole).

by Verse



Category: Dororo (Anime), Dororo - Osamu Tezuka
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider, Reincarnation, Time Loop, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 16:51:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17922650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verse/pseuds/Verse
Summary: There are things humans shouldn't know, ways little boys shouldn't behave. But Dororo being part of any of those categories is up for debate.(Or: the one where Dororo remembers being small in black and white, being big in a world of steam and machine, and every life in between, and act in consequence.)





	Time is like a river (and I am set on drinking it whole).

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [You meet him by the river](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17686850) by [Verse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verse/pseuds/Verse). 



> This is the same principle as "You meet him by the river" au-wise. Come on, you can't give me that many interpretations of the same story and expect me NOT to reincarnate the shit out of it.

Truth to be told, the first time Mio sees Dororo, she doesn't pay much attention. That's not saying she doesn't _care_ \- no, Mio cares. There is _no_ doubt that she cares. But what she sees is an orphan of the war, like so many others, like herself, dirty and scrappy, and Mio doesn't dig much more than that (doesn't think there is much more than that)

Plus, she has her hand full already, and the wounded takes priority over everything else. Mio _knows_ kids; they always pull through as long as they're not bleeding out.

"Your big brother will be okay," she tells him. Dororo sighs in relief, as would any sane person with a family member in the same situation.

"Thank you." He says, looking at her-

but it's more than looking. Or rather, he's not quite looking _at_ her- but rather _past_ her, as if he was trying to grasp something far behind her. Her soul, perhaps. Or maybe he is just lost in thoughts.

"I'm glad we ran into you." he says, in a tone Mio can't quite decipher.

She brushes it off. She must be overthinking things. She _is_ sleepy, after all.

 

* * *

 He's watching her. Mio isn't surprised. He's in a new environment, surrounded by people he doesn't know, she _expects_ the kid to be a little paranoid. No one survives long guided by blind faith.

But-

It feels like-

He's looking at the house. He's talking to the other kids. But her? He _observes_.

 

* * *

"I'm surprised someone as young as you knew what my job was." She tells him, much later, because Dororo, as it turns out, is a much smarter kid than he lets on.

 How old is he, really? Mio doesn't ask- she doubts _he_ knows. Younger than her, for sure. Older than most of her siblings, though. How old?

  _Eight_ supplies her mind, vaguely remembering a time before the war, when people ate- not at _will_ , but _enough_ , and people actually grew tall and strong.

  _Twelve_ suggest her eyes, comparing his attitude and appearance to the other kids. Hungry kids stay short and scrawny. It wouldn't be out of place.

  _More_ says her heart. There is wisdom in these eyes- maturity that cannot come from the war alone. _more, more, much more._

 Fourteen?

 Sixteen?

 Twenty?

 ... more?

 This time, Mio is intrigued.

 

* * *

 "Tomorrow morning," Dororo tells her, just before she sets off, "go by the sandpit after work. The one we talked about."

  Any other request, from any other kid, Mio would have accepted with a nod and a smile. But then again, any other request, from any other kid, would have come with an explanation.

 "...Didn't you guys say there was a huge demon over there?"

 "Yeah, that's the place." Dororo nods, as if that was supposed to encourage her to go. "Don't worry. Hyakkimaru will have killed the thing by then."

 Mio finds that highly unlikely. Sure, Hyakkimaru is one _tough_ guy, considering how fast he got used to his lost leg, but it doesn't change the fact that he is _not_ getting into fights anytime soon. Not on her watch.

 "He'll sneak out during the night to fight it, knowing him."

Mio raises an eyebrow. Didn't Dororo say he would keep an eye on his brother?

 "Oh, I will, that's not the issue. But I've known the guy for a long time. I trust him to do what is in his nature to do."

So much pessimism in such a little body. 

Mio humors him, though. Because it's not that far from her path anyway, because she figures she can just run if things look bad, (because Dororo is an ominous little thing and his words remind Mio too much of old stories of youkais and spirits to ignore it.)

Dororo, as it turns out, has been very right, and has been very wrong.

When she comes in, there is a monster in the pit. 

And, she hadn't noticed, there are monsters at her feet. 

(The samurai never stood a chance.)

* * *

"How did you know?" She asks him, much later, when no one else is listening. She manages to keep her breath even, but her hands are still trembling.

 Hyakkimaru had saved her. Yet another thing the kid was right about.

 "I didn't." Dororo says, shrugging. "I never _met_ you before, so I didn't know how it things would turn out. But I knew you would have died if I did nothing, and that was the only thing that came to my mind." He smiles at her. It's genuine and bright, but something in the row of teeth, something in that light, sends shivers down her spine.

There are so many things to unpack in that sentence. There are _so many things_ wrong with this wording and those actions, but the kid ( _if he is even one_ ) sounds dead set on avoiding straight answers, and Mio... 

Mio has been to the sea exactly once, a long time ago; her parents had traveled all the way to the coast to trade what little money they had for fish.

This had been a sight Mio could never forget: barren, wide, wide, so wide, stretching beyond anything she could see, bigger than anything manmade she has ever seen. A whole universe hidden under the waves, a world she could not grasp in any shape or form- not without giving away something. Maybe everything.

 Dororo, Mio thinks, is an ocean of his own; something much, much greater than she could ever _comprehend_ , tucked safely in a human child's skin.

"Who... are you?" The question comes off like a whisper. Divine or demon, Mio knows better than to offend him.

 Dororo raises both eyebrows and tilts his head. Is he unwilling to answer? Does he not know?

 (Has he forgotten?)

 "Which me are you talking about? The one in front of you? All those I have been before? How far do you want me to reach back?"

 Both. None. Either.

 "I'm Dororo!" He chirps, jumping on his feet. "I am a boy, and a master thief, and Hyakkimaru's brother."

Those are things she already knows, for what weight 'knowing about Dororo' holds. But the boy doesn't care. He starts pacing, his hands moving with his words.

 "I have been a boy before, and a girl, and things in between. I have been a human and a demon, and someone half machine half flesh." His gaze holds the tides; rising and falling, far, too far in a sea of memories Mio can only dip her hands in to try to catch a few drops. "I have been a criminal! And a victim. And a kid, and an adult. And tattooed! And sad, and happy, and angry. And dead." His pacing stops, finally. "That, I have been a lot."

That last part is said casually, almost as an afterthought. This, more than anything else, is what upsets Mio the most.

"I'm Dororo." He repeats. "And Hyakkimaru is my brother. Those are the only constants. Those are who I am in any given life."

And it sounds so upbeat, so sweet. Honey around charcoal. Mio does not miss the fire in his words.

"You... sound like you've had a lot of those." She says, carefully. Human or not, kid or not, Dororo loves- he's not  _in_ love, the distinction is important. He  _loves_. And Mio knows better than most, the things one can do for love. (The terrible things one will do for love.)

"We all do. You, too." He flicks a finger at her. "Though it's the first time I've seen you alive around here. I'm just the only one who remembers."

Ah.  _That's_ what he meant by 'meeting' her. "But you've heard of me?"

"Hyakkimaru told me about you, before." Idly, Mio wonders what Hyakkimaru's voice must sound like, because this entire situation is so  _surreal_ and this is the only way she can process meeting with an... immortal trickster god of sort. "You've been really important to him, a few times."

 _A few times_. There is something oddly comforting in knowing that this is not a constant. That her  _fate_ is not a constant. "But Hyakkimaru doesn't remember?"

Dororo shakes his head. "No. That's a good thing, though. I've seen him at his best, and I've seen him at his worst... it's good that he can't remember that. Those were not pleasant times."

He looks down at his hands. Mio wonders, what does he see? Does he see them larger, stronger? Smaller, weaker? Holding rice, holding tools, covered in dust or blood?

He turns to look at her again. In his voice, she hears the storm. "And if I can help it, he will never have to go through that  _ever_  again."

 

**Author's Note:**

> It's my self indulgence and I decide who gets to be in character.


End file.
